UNLOCKING AFRICA’S FINANCIAL SOVEREIGNTY: FROM SAVINGS TO STRATEGIC POWER
Africa’s pursuit of financial sovereignty has never been more critical. Mounting constraints – from discriminatory trade barriers and rising debt to a global economy increasingly reduced to hard transactional terms – are reshaping the continent’s options. Meanwhile, international capital has grown more selective, costlier, and less patient than at any time in the past 50 years.
Across the continent, many of Africa’s most transformative projects — in energy, infrastructure, and digital innovation — remain stalled or underfunded. Yet the solution to inclusive growth and true autonomy lies within Africa’s grasp: mobilising its own savings through fit-for-purpose instruments, forward-thinking regulation, and strategic partnerships that can channel domestic capital into long-term investment.
This investable pool — valued in the trillions of U.S. dollars — spans pension funds, sovereign wealth vehicles, insurance assets, commercial banks, fintech platforms, and foreign exchange reserves. Right now, much of this capital remains underutilised — or flows outward in search of returns abroad.
The challenge is to activate this capital at scale.
The AFIS community of African financial institutions and policymakers must take the lead in driving this shift: from dependence to design, from fragmentation to coordination. This requires rethinking legacy structures, overcoming silos, and building trust across jurisdictions. It also demands positioning Africa’s financial champions at the heart of a new, future-facing financial architecture — one rooted in ownership, regional leadership, and smart risk-sharing.
Strategic Priorities:
- Unlock institutional capital by aligning regulatory frameworks across pensions, insurance, sovereign funds, and reserves;
- Empower African finance to lead and fund landmark national projects — particularly in energy, logistics, infrastructure, and natural resources;
- Make local stock exchanges and fintech platforms central to capital formation, especially for SMEs, Family Businesses and private equity;
- Strengthen insurance markets to address emerging risks — including cyber threats, climate change, and supply chain disruptions;
- Facilitate regulatory interoperability to ensure pan-African initiatives — AfCFTA, PAPSS, AELP deliver on their financial potential.
On 3–4 November in Casablanca, 1,250 African and global financial leaders and policymakers will come together to shape this new roadmap. This is not merely a financial challenge.
Africa does not need saving — just its own savings and capital. This is Africa’s moment.
PANELS, STRATEGIC ROUNDTABLES & WORKSHOPS
GLOBAL ECONOMIC AND STABILITY CHALLENGES
Unlocking domestic capital for a future we own AfCFTA, PAPSS & AELP: How can pan-African initiatives deliver the impact financial institutions want to see? BRICS, Eastern influence, de-dollarisation and tariffs – the macro trends and how to outplay them Debt-for-nature swaps: Climate solution or financial illusion?
COMMERCIAL BANKING OUTLOOK
Trusting local banks with FX reserves: A move to boost sovereignty or a big risk? On the frontline of fiscal strain: How can financial institutions manage sovereign debt exposure? Who controls African trade finance – and why isn’t it African banks? Supply chain finance: Africa’s secret weapon for business efficiency? NPL breathing room: How could expanded secondary markets ease pressure on banks?
CAPITAL MARKETS & ASSET MANAGEMENT
From dry ports to deep waters: Financing inland corridors and trade access for landlocked countries Mobilising domestic savings into capital markets: What’s stopping pension funds? Reviving African stock markets: Forging publicly-listed family businesses with pan-African ambitions Overcoming the barriers to local currency debt markets Private Equity: Succeeding in exiting investments through capital markets.
SUSTAINABILITY
Green, social and blue Bonds and green sukuk: Building Africa’s climate finance toolbox Building and aligning green taxonomies Aid’s vanishing act: The next play for women-led SME & fintech funding African sovereign funds and diaspora VC: New alliances for development finance.
EXPANDING INSURANCE
Tech, climate & food ecosystem exposures: Can insurance absorb the coming shockwaves? How can insurance supervisors tackle Africa’s 3% penetration rate? Climate shock cover: How to expand regional climate risk pools.
DIGITAL FINANCIAL SERVICES & FINTECH
Co-designing AI-driven MSME finance with bank, fintech and MFI partnerships Challenger banks: The neobanks disrupting the status quo Regulatory passporting: The missing link to smoothing cross-border compliance and sparking innovation? Blockchain, AI and cyber resilience: Progressing e-KYC, fraud detection and digital innovation Enabling early-stage investment ecosystems in Africa.